Junior Wraith NRI Missions: Kessel's Aftermath
by AdraLoran
Summary: AU Wraith - Junior Wraith Squadrons. The third in a soon-to-be-formed series, this one revolves around the Loran Twins. Fun stuff.
1. Return to Coruscant

Title: Junior Wraith Squadron NRI Missions:  Kessel's Aftermath  
Author: AdraLoran  
Keywords: Junior Wraith Squadron, Wraith Squadron  
Dramatis Personal:  
NRI Head Iella Wessiri Antilles (female human)  
General Wedge Antilles (male human)  
Colonel Garik 'Face' Loran (male human)  
Colonel Jagged Fel (male human)  
Colonel Jaina Fel (female human)  
Lieutenant Colonel Kell Tainer (male human)  
Lieutenant Colonel Nicola Afyon (female human)  
Commander Cloud Ritril (male human)  
Commander Tyria Ritril (female human)  
Commander Tyria Tainer (female human)  
Major Adra Loran (female human)  
Major Bror Afyon (male human)  
Major Jade Veila (female human)  
Major Ryok Necxo (male human)  
Captain Asyr Sei'lar (female human)  
Captain Gaeriel Captison (female human)  
Liselle Afyon (female human)  
Melidere Afyon (female human)  
Inyri Loran (female human)  
Davin Fel (male human)  
Rane Fel (male human)  
Doran Tainer (male human)  
Koyi Afyon (female human)  
Tynian Afyon (male human)  
Kavin Ritril (male human)  
Jacinta Loran (female human)  
Elex Tainer (male human)  
Saraiyu Tainer (female human)  
Keira Fel (female human)  
Cerise Ritril (female human)

**Chapter One – Return to Coruscant**

"Mom... don't say anything. Please."

His mother's gaze was hard locked on him and it took all of his will not to quake under the look. It almost seemed as if his mother's eyes could launch proton torpedoes. Of course, if they actually could, Garik probably wouldn't be alive right now. At last she seemed to collect thoughts that wouldn't be fit for dressing down a Cadet fresh from flight school.

"Don't say anything?" she hissed the question through visibly clenched teeth. "Don't say anything?" This time her voice was louder. "How do you expect me not to say anything!"

Garik cringed slightly. He and his twin had just returned from a mission to Kessel, there to find out what sort of influence the Imps held. A week into their mission suddenly had Kai not saying anything. Her only replies would be a head nod or shake and a shrug from time to time. It had taken their remaining week there for Garik to finally break past the duracrete walls in his twin's mind only to find that upon entrance he immediately wanted it to be anything but the truth. Twelve days and innumerous jumps later, they had returned to Coruscant. Their report had been given to Iella and then they'd made their way back to Wraith Headquarters. On the way over, Garik had tried to get an entire story out of Kai. Instantly she'd slammed their bond shut and had answered nothing else other than to confirm the truth of what had happened.

And upon return, his sister had rushed to her rooms and left Garik to be greeted, fawned over and, inevitably, questioned. And, inevitably, his mother had learned the truth.

Behind his mother, Garik saw his father walk up. If he were worried before, it was worse now. His father put his arms around his mother's waist, reminding Garik intensely of Ty and his twin. Then a flash of one of Kai's memories claimed his thoughts. As though he were looking through her eyes in this memory, Garik realized that the same 'embrace' was being employed on his sister in the memory. Only, in the memory, she clearly didn't like it and, what's more, was panicked by it.

A question in his mother's voice brought Garik around. "Garik, how old are you?" It took him a second, but when he finally could respond, he knew his expression was incredulous. "I'm not asking you like I don't know. I'm making an example."

Clarified, Garik said cautiously, "Sixteen."

He could sense his father was confused as to where this was going. However, it was his mother who yet again spoke. "Very good. And that would make Kai sixteen, yes?" Garik nodded, knowing better than to reply sarcastically.

"Adra, where are you going with this?" Garik's father asked suddenly. He saw his mother shake her head at him, and reply with, "I'm getting there."

Her attention returned to him. "Alright, I'll drop the fake ideas. Let me jump to the point. Garik, why do you think Inyri Forge reacts to men the way she does? Why do you think she's purposefully sabotaged relationships?" Garik stared at her face, waiting. "Because she was used by a jerk, knocked up then beaten up, left to die and then was blamed for another man's death. You're now telling me not to say anything to her when we all know Kai has enough oddities as it is. She doesn't need another of lacking self-confidence."

Before he could say anything else, his father broke in. Clearly visible and interpreted from his face, he'd obviously figured out what was being spoken of in the conversation. And he was plainly pissed.

"Wait. Halt. Adra, are you saying what I think you're saying?" Without even waiting for an answer, he turned on his heel and went down the hall. Behind him, Garik heard a sound. He turned and saw his Aunt Nicola, Uncle Bror and Tynian. Koyi was standing in her parents' shadows and Ciny was there with her. Mumbling an excuse to leave, Garik hardly saw his aunt and Ty go off after his father.

* * * * *

Kai's hands shook visibly as she placed her datapad on the in-wall shelf. Before she broke something, she decided to sit down instead. Even as she did so, the memories, so fresh and painful, began replaying. She jumped up again, though whether it be by the sound of her door opening or merely the want to so something _besides_ think, she didn't know.

As her eyes made out who the figure was, she quickly turned and busied herself, hiding her tears. Her father's strong grip latched onto her shoulder and pulled her around into a hug. For minutes that seemed hours, Kai's gaze was lost in the dark of her father's shirt. A soft tap on the doorframe pulled her away to instead look at the new visitor.

"You mind if we come in?"

Her Aunt Nicola's voice was quickly followed by Ty's gentle Force-probe. It seemed Garik hadn't kept to his promise. She'd be giving him some words later. Maybe. Looking back at her aunt from the chrono's face, she nodded. Briefly, she even touched the Force-presence that offered itself to her.

She was wrapped in her aunt's embrace as soon as Nicola had crossed the room. She returned it, but broke off quickly. Instead, she looked over at Ty and smile slightly, then detached herself to move over to him and hug him. Hesitantly it seemed, but Ty put his arms loosely around her to return the gesture. In spite of everything, and no doubt Ty knew by now, Kai was happy to be back. She'd really missed Ty...not to mention her father's need to be protective...

Movement from the adults caused her to look up and over at them. Aunt Nicola had shooed her father out the door. She turned to look at her son and Kai reluctantly let him go. Ty released her a moment later, as if just as reluctant to do so, but he did it anyway. With a sigh that only she heard, he went over to his mother, who offered him some quiet words, then exited.

Kai looked at her aunt, wondering what this was about, and if her mother had asked Aunt Nicola to do this. The Jedi stood for a moment, then nodded to the chairs at the table. She moved to sit down in one and was quickly followed by her aunt's taking another one. Her hands resting on the table space in front of her, Kai stared at them as they absently pulled at a piece of string. Another hand covered hers, halting their movement.

"Kai, look at me," her aunt said softly. When she complied, her aunt's hands moved up to wipe her cheeks. Kai suddenly realized that there had been tears running down them. "Oh honey," was all Aunt Nicola said, but Kai was being pulled from her chair into another hug. Even so, more tears began collecting in her eyes, waiting to fall. The first one traced a path down her cheek and was soon followed by others. Her aunt must've noticed them because she once again was rubbing Kai's cheeks dry. "It's okay, Kai, it's okay."

Shaking her head, Kai brushed the remaining tears from her eyes, silently ordering them to stop forming. She pulled back from her aunt's embrace and was allowed to. A new hand rested on her shoulder, causing her to jump and turn around quickly. Thankfully, it was only her mother. Koyi stood a few paces behind her, giving them their space for the moment. Though it was Adra who now held Kai in a hug, she couldn't help feeling the desire to just be alone. Of course, that wasn't possible.

Aunt Nicola was looking at Koyi, obviously having a Force-spoken conversation with her. Kai said nothing, waiting for the outcome. Koyi at last nodded and walked out the door and Nicola's attention returned to her and her mother.

"Kai...I know you probably don't want to talk about this right now, but...well...to some degree you have to." Kai stiffened at the words her aunt spoke, then gazed imploringly at her mother. Adra merely nodded, her face unreadable, though she put an arm over Kai's shoulders. After a moment, she nodded. The three of them sat down at the table, Kai in the middle and feeling a bit trapped. Nothing like two weeks previous, though. Closing her eyes momentarily, she shuddered at the memories. This was one of those times when she was really glad she didn't have Winter's indelible memory.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw the other two women exchanging a look. It was gone before she could study it, but that didn't leave her in the dark. Deciding she might as well say _something_ she cast around for a subject and it landed on her Jedi training.

"Does Uncle...er...Master Bror know? I mean, he must...but..." her voice trailed off quietly as she looked between the two of them.

It was her mother that spoke, "Yes, he knows. That was actually something we had to think about approaching. You know he's eventually going to find out exactly what happened, even if no one else but Garik does." Kai locked gazes with her mother, unbelieving. "Come on Kai, you're not stupid," she said softly. "Jedi with apprentices are supposed to be able to know what's going on in their padawan's head. If they can't break past the walls, then they shouldn't be that padawan's master. I doubt that your Uncle Bror will jump on you and start questioning, but I don't think he's going to leave you to deal with it as your personal demon."

Kai stared at the table silently, an empty feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had known that, of course. The only thing was...she didn't know if she could face talking about the experience when the time came.


	2. Kill Garik Loran

**Chapter Two – Kill Garik Loran**

The Afyon 'children' sat in a loose circle, talking quietly. All of the siblings now knew what had happened in the mission to Kessel. After all, how could they not? Ty sighed angrily at himself. After he'd left Kai with his mother and aunt, he'd taken some of Meli's explosives and gone out to the demolitions range. He wasn't the only one out there either. Uncle Face was there already, as was Koyi. He'd thrown what explosives he'd had and at the same time told Koyi the problem. That's not saying that his twin didn't already know. By the time he was done, Koyi had disappeared. It was not twenty standard minutes later, and Ty was sitting with all his sisters and their respective boyfriends, namely Rane Fel and Garik Loran. Lis and Rane were watching him, not saying anything. Garik was seated next to Koyi and in spite of himself, Ty could sense Garik's reluctance to be present. Somehow, he thought, Garik knew more than he claimed to. And Tynian had every intention of finding out what it was.

Garik, seated across from him, shifted as Ty looked at him. Ty raised an eyebrow, almost as if her were waiting for Kai's twin to speak. Which he was.

"So it's true, isn't it," Meli said, looking between the Junior Wraiths- and friend- present.

About to reply, Ty saw Rane open his mouth to speak. "What's true?" he asked. "Sorry to pry, but who and what are we talking about?"

Liselle looked over at Ty with an apology, then turned to the younger of the Fel twins. Ty sighed to himself as he heard, for the second time today, the results of the Kessel mission.

"Kai and Garik got into more than a bit of trouble, and, well, Kai ended up...er...well," Ty saw his older sister glance at him, a questioning look evident. With a sigh, Lis went on in a quieter tone, "Kai was raped." She finished, her tone dry, and nearly everyone in the room was watching her. Ty wasn't, however.

His attention was drawn to Garik instead. The navigation expert was staring at his hands, stone-faced. Ty's eyes narrowed; he quickly probed Garik in the Force.

_What? What do you know that you're not telling us?_ he asked, almost forcefully.

Garik looked over at him, his green eyes distant. His mouth opened to reply, and another voice supplied the words.

"He knows more than I'd like him to, at any rate."

The entirety of the group looked up to see the dark-haired, dark-eyed Jedi pilot standing in the open doorway of the lounge. Ty quickly followed her gaze to her twin. Garik's shoulders were slumped and was cringing visibly. Ty looked back at Kai as she began speaking again.

"He knows more than he should because he just had to go and get inside my head," she said, glaring at him. Then her gaze turned to Ty's and she smiled slightly. _Of course, it's not like you wouldn't have done the same thing eventually._

Ty offered a smile, unsure if that's what Kai wanted, but nonetheless willing to offer it. He watched as she crossed over to where the rest of the group was sitting and took a spot next to him.

Ty grinned to himself, glad to that he, at least, wasn't going to lose her over what had happened. Even so, he was almost at a lost for words when Kai leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. Sure, it was a little thing, but still. He saw his sisters roll their eyes at him when Kai put her head on his shoulder, but immediately stifled any reply he might've made when he felt Kai open herself to him in the Force, all barriers gone.

The rest of the beings in the room suddenly didn't matter anymore, were of no consequence whatsoever; all that mattered was making sense of what Kai was 'showing' him. All her memories and experiences of the Kessel mission were flashing in front of him. Everything. In something like a fast-forwarded holodrama, he saw the twins landing, them following their contact, following the man assumed to be an Imp; everything.

Including what had happened to her at the hands of some kriffing Kessel jerk. Immediately, thoughts about stealing Jori Daragon's Death Star came into his head. Not only thoughts of stealing it, but taking it to go and blow up Kessel. And then he'd pound Garik to pulp.

At this point, he realized that he could see the rest of the room again, the memory overload now at a halt. Kai's head was still on his shoulder, only now he was staring at her. Abruptly, he realized the sleeve of his shirt was wet, as though moistened by tears. Ty turned ever-so-slightly and wrapped his arms around Kai in a tight hug, having no doubt in his mind that while he had seen those memories, so had she.

Around the room, he could sense everyone had stopped thinking about the fact that they were being less-than-discrete about their relationship. No, now they were wondering what Kai had done or said to cause him to make that sharp a reaction. Only Garik seemed to know otherwise.

Releasing her after a moment, Ty stood abruptly and looked hard at Garik. Kai's brother met his gaze, then quickly looked away. Behind him, he felt Kai's presence pick itself up and move towards the exit. Ty merely stared at Garik a few more seconds. Then he said, very clearly, "You are dead, Garik Loran. You're dead." And before anyone could reply, he exited after Kai.


	3. The Dream

**Chapter Three – The Dream**

_The area around her was dark and smelled almost moldy.  The sound made against the walls of the place made it very clear that they were a thick, water-resistant material.  The scent of sweat was strong, just as was that of a dirty container that once held some sort of nerfsteak.  The darkness was evident, even when she opened her eyes, trying to figure out what was going on._

_Quite suddenly, a force stronger than herself grasped at her upper arms, shoving her frame into the material.  Though it wasn't stone, that didn't mean it didn't have an effect on her head.  It became readily apparent to her at that moment that she also had a splitting headache and a bruise on her right cheek.  Before she could logically register the extent to which her body hurt, she heard a roguish voice saying something to her.  Yet try as she might, she couldn't interpret what was being said or asked of her.  Before she could try to form a question of repetition, a fist came out of nowhere to deliver its blow to the side of her face._

_She squeezed her eyes shut, as tight as they would go, biting her lip to keep from crying out.  A hand gripped under her chin, forcing her face in another direction and she opened her eyes..._to find herself sitting bolt upright in bed, her breath coming in short, uneven jerks.

As Adra wrestled for control of the dream and everything that came with it, she looked around for her wristchrono.  With aid of the Force, it was found and Adra looked quickly at its face to see the time.  2417.  Right.  One hand was spread flat over the base of her neck, seen as a mother's action of compassion by some, now merely a reminder that she still needed to breathe and swallow.  Her other hand returned the wristchrono to the bedside table silently.

She let herself fall back, head hitting the pillow lightly and soundlessly.  As if on fast forward, her mind replayed the dream, and though it was short, it held tremendous detail.  With startled realization, Adra felt a phantom ache on her right cheek.  A stray memory clicked very suddenly:  the bruise on Kai's cheek.  It was almost invisible now, but it was still there.  And it was on Kai's right cheek.

Undecided on whether or not she should go and find out what was really going on in her youngest child's head, she nearly jumped when a hand brushed a patch of loose hair from across her face.  Her overloaded brain quickly realized whose hand it was as she had grabbed the wrist of, ready to break it if she had to.

"Is there a reason I'm the new punching bag?" Face's laughing voice came across to her through the darkness and she immediately released his wrist with a slightly muffled 'sorry'.  The same hand she had been threatening with a broken ligament ruffled her loose hair, pulling more out of the braid she had it in.  Forgetting her troubles over the dream for the time being, Adra rolled up onto an elbow to face him and then, in the same movement, had both hands pressed firmly against his shoulders, pushing him firmly into the mattress and his pillow.

"And if you were, what would you do to stop me, eh?"

For the most part leaving her question unanswered, Face raised his still relatively-free arms up to frame her face before he pulled it down to his, kissing her firmly on the lips.

* * * * *

Kai was startled out of her sleep by the dream she was having, a dream so vivid that it was more like going back in time to the point at when it had really happened.  Before she did anything else, a hand rose to touch her right cheek, fingers treading carefully over the slightly discolored skin there.  But the bruise was fading and she could cover the fact that it was there at all by using the Force.  Kai closed her eyes again, staring into the black depths behind her eyelids, not really seeing the lack of color there.  No, it was more like her eyes roaming her mind, searching out whatever had prompted her dream.  But it wasn't as if she didn't know because she knew all too well, where it came from, and how it was prompted.  She was the one who'd experienced it, after all, wasn't she?

Opening her eyes once more, Kai carefully took in the dark and shadowed surroundings.  The holoprojector's light indicated it was still on, but not showing anything.  Abruptly the situation returned to her.  She and Ty had left his siblings in the lounge and gone off to talk.  After dinner earlier that night, they'd decided to come and watch a holovid, even if they had seen all of the holodramas in the building.  But they had settled on a couch in the lounge around 2130 and watched their holovid.

Or, rather, watched it until she had fallen asleep.  That in itself was a bit surprising, since Kai hadn't slept in increments larger than thirty minutes for a while.  If she did, dreams of what had happened at Kessel would float to the surface and haunt her.  And that in itself was enough to keep her shying away from sleep.

She didn't realize Ty was awake right off, content to merely allow her thoughts to rest on nothing at all, so long as where they roamed wasn't into darkened memories, her head on his shoulder.  Movement on Tynian's part- shifting to move his foot out from under his other leg- caused her to see he was awake.  Abruptly she drew back, allowing him more mobility than with her leaning on him as well.

When she straightened to the best of her ability while sitting, a light tug on her loose hair caused her to think about maybe putting it up or braiding it.  Deftly, she pulled the caught pieces free from her tank top's strap, wincing as it pulled directly at her skull.  One sure she wouldn't be receiving any other sharp jolts from her tank top or hair, she at last turned to look at Ty.  As she resettled, she pulled her bare feet from the floor to sit loosely cross-legged on the couch, angled slightly towards Ty.

Casting around for something to say, her mind landed on the easiest subject to follow.  "Sorry I fell asleep...  Really tired I guess," she said quietly.

Beside her, she heard him laugh.  "Hey, I don't mind.  It's still time with you, without any siblings or friends around."

Kai grinned in the shadowed darkness, giggling slightly.  She scooted back over to rest her head on his shoulder once more, saying, "Yeah, Ciny's deciding to finally lay off was a good thing."

From their bond in the Force, Kai could hear Ty's agreement, as well as vaguely see him nodding.  Carefully, she studied his expression, wondering what was going on behind it, but refusing to just invade his head- a lesson learned the hard way from Garik.

"What?"

Ty released a sigh and chewed on the inside of his lower lip before he decided to answer.  "You were broadcasting...  But, well, this isn't what I want to go off on, but was that an actual memory?"

Not trusting her voice to answer for her, Kai nodded once, closing her eyes again to stop the tears ready to leak from them.  Truly, Tynian was the best person in the universe.  He cared about her and it meant more to her than she could've ever imagined.

A finger traced its way over the bruise on her cheek, taking care not to press against it.  Quite the opposite from the way the bruise was attained, that's for sure.  Kai glanced up to see Ty's head leaned forward and titled slightly, brows furrowed.  Suddenly she realized why he looked confused.  Since her return, she'd used the Force to hide the mark as best she could and it had paid off in that none of her siblings or friends had asked about it.

One of her hands loosed itself from the other and she covered his hand with hers.  Sensing his question before it had even been fully formed and asked, she smiled sadly.  Even though she'd shared with him the memories from the Kessel Mission, she purposely delivered them in a manner that would be too quick for the mind's eye to comprehend each scene.  And it wasn't because she didn't want Ty to know.  No, it was more like she was afraid of what he'd do if he did know.

"Reminder of Kessel," she said simply, interlocking her fingers through his and pull the hand away.  Though her remark had come off in an uncaring way, Kai knew it wouldn't satisfy Ty's need for an answer in the long run.  So instead, she removed her head from his shoulder and turned to face him completely.  "I showed you what happened...and you said I was broadcasting a memory.  I got punched in the face before that.  If you take what I showed you earlier," she sighed at the thought of going through it again, "then you'll be able to find, I'm sure, when it happened.  It's not that hard to find out."

Ty raised their still-connected hands and brushed away loose hair from her forehead as he nodded.  Silently he planted a kiss on her forehead before extricating his hand from hers.  Kai was pulled into a hug soon after, one she readily returned, face buried in his shoulder.


	4. Reggie Grandar

**Chapter Four – Reggie Grandar**

_She walked along the damp, dark passageway, footfalls silent on the ground.  Either that or it wasn't necessary for the dream.  But in Kai's mind, she could hear them.  She knew they were the only echo in the place.  But they wouldn't be for long, assuming this was the situation she thought it was._

_A sharp click on the duracrete behind her spun her around.  The shadowed figure standing there set Kai's heart pounding.  The figure, his face still indistinguishable in the darkness even though Kai could remember it vividly in her mind's eye, approached slowly.  Kai quickly moved backwards, almost tripping over her own feet, and turned to run towards the end of the passage.  The movement behind her quickened as she did and, next second, a strong pair of arms caught her, one around her midsection, the other putting a hand over her mouth._

_The familiar fluttering in the pit of her stomach came to her, only this time from fear and nerves as to what was going to happen, even though she already knew.  She already knew because it had been Garik who'd suggested she go down and inspect that particular passage, who'd pointed it out to her.  And, of course, she'd done it and lived with the aftereffects of that simple scouting job.  And her twin?  What of him?  He had gone to a frelling cantina to 'scout' there._

_Not even realizing her attempts to get free of the figure's grip, she only came to the realization when she bit the lower part of the hand that covered her mouth.  The figure spat out a curse and pulled her around to face him.  Using the hand that had formerly covered her mouth, he drew it back and delivered a well-placed blow to her right cheekbone, purposely avoiding her nose, as that wouldn't look good for her to be found dead with it pushed back into her skull.  The world spun abruptly, and then everything was consumed with the endless blackness known as unconsciousness._

Kai jolted awake abruptly, looking around her room.  The chrono on her wall read 0857 as Kai quickly rolled out of bed, stumbling across the room towards the closet and a pair of sweats, a clean tank top and her lightsaber on utility belt.  Her black hair was quickly tied back after it was combed through, followed by a vigorous face scrubbing.  Anything to get the phantom feel of a touch from the shadowed figure from Kessel.

Shrugging her arms into her mother's old Wraith Squadron jacket, the one that was given her when she joined, she went barefoot down the hall to the mess, hoping she might find some kind of hot drink mix.  The bottoms of her feet cold on the floor, as it was colder than the floor in her room, she hardly noticed the other small talk coming from one corner of the mess hall as she passed.  The chatter stopped as she continued walking at she distinctly felt one presence seated there- that of her twin- grow a bit nervous.

_Good boy, Garik_, she thought to him.  Quickly she filled a mug of caf, warming her hands on it before turning to go back to the table she'd passed earlier.  Garik had gotten up rather quickly and was bolting for the door.  Smart move, actually.  Koyi was looking from her boyfriend to Kai herself, an eyebrow raised.  "What?" Kai asked her.

Koyi shook her head at Kai, sighing heavily before she took another sip of her own caf.  Instead of sitting down at the table, she walked off out the door Garik had left through, very aware of the worried glances from Ciny, Koyi and Keira.  But she didn't go after her brother.  Even if she had wanted to, she was stopped by her mother's hand.

She looked up to the face she'd known all her life and sighed inwardly.  So she hadn't been dampening her thoughts as well as she thought she had.  Either that or it was just some connection her mother had with her.  Hopefully it was the latter.  It would certainly get very...odd if all the Jedi on the base knew what was going on inside her head.

Kai followed her mother into her parents' quarters, sipping the caf she still had every now and then.  Her mother cast the mug a dark look, but said nothing.  Kai knew that her mother didn't like her drinking caf when she was 16, but she also knew her mother wouldn't stop her from drinking it.  Following her mother's example of sitting down, though without the tired-sounding sigh, Kai put her mug on the caf table between them, gaze resting on the mug itself, trying to look anywhere but her mother's face, in truth.

"Kai," she heard at last, "I'm not going to say anything about your dreams, memories, whatever you want to call them.  And before you even ask, no nobody else among the Jedi here have gotten any hint of your dreams.  It's just me because of that wonderful little parent/child bond Force-users have.  I'm not sure about your brother," Adra said.

Kai merely shrugged.  "Alright, then what _is this about?"_

Her mother sighed and inserted a datacard into the holocube.  It obviously held an image file.  The holoprojector sprang to life, the holoimage above it showing a young man, maybe 17 at oldest.  The image was old, older than Kai herself, but it still looked vaguely familiar.  With sharp realization, she understood who it was.  Or who she knew this man as.  While she wasn't sure how her mother had come across such an image, she didn't really bother to care right now.

Kai glanced down at her hands as she felt her mother's fold over them.  Suddenly she realized they were shaking.  After a moment, her mother removed her hand and took the datacard from the projector, leaving Kai to cover her face in her hands.

Startling her from her silence was her mother's voice.  "So I was right then."  A sigh.  Kai looked over her fingertips to see her, dark eyes roaming her mother's face.  She received an answer to the unasked question immediately.

"I'm assuming that's who you had your 'run in' with.  What you just saw was Reggie Grandar as I knew him when he was at the Imperial Academy.  He was sixteen at the time I got that image.  From what I've been getting in your memory dreams, I took a stab at it that I knew who the still-shadowed figure was.  I'm guessing, from your reaction, I was right."  She paused, looking at Kai as if for confirmation, and Kai nodded.  Adra sighed again and went on.  "Well...  I guess you can go about and do whatever for the day.  I'm going to be figuring out what other information I have on Reggie."

As Kai took her mug and began to leave, she heard her mother say softly, "I'll kill that bastard."  Quickly she turned around, staring at her.  Adra didn't even look up; her attention was focused solely on the holoprojector in front of her as it once-again showed the image of Reggie Grandar.  Suppressing a shudder, Kai walked to the door, again hearing her mother's oath to the image.  Before she could hear any more, Kai exited, hitting the control panel after her.


	5. Reactions

**Chapter Five - Reactions**

Ty stared up at the ceiling of his room, his thoughts not exactly clear in their focus.  Right now, he was almost glad that his sister had her own bunkroom, just as he did.  It certainly helped him to not have her voice interceding on his thoughts, telling him to go to sleep, or to quit plotting revenge, or-

His thoughts were driven from what he _would_ do to the Kessel bastard by the sound of his door releasing to open.  At 2200, the lights were dimmed for the sleep cycle of the day, and the figure who came through his doorway was merely a shadow with dim light for an outline.  Even so, Ty knew who the person was.  Rolling his head from side to side to get the kinks from his neck as he moved on lean on his elbow, he watched Kai walk over.

A smile played on his lips as she sat down at the edge of his bed, back more-or-less to him, though she was turned slightly to see his face.  His eyes long-since-adjusted to the darkness, he could make out a frown on her dark features, though it wasn't anything that would be termed 'unusual' since her return from Kessel.  Actually, if Ty could, right now, he'd take the Jori's Death Star and blow that place to each of Corellia's hells and then go on to redeliver it to them again.

He was startled once more from his thoughts of revenge on Kessel by Kai once more, though this time it was more of a shock.  While he had been occupied with his thoughts, she'd shifted her position and was now lying next to him while he lay on his back, she herself on her side facing him, head on his shoulder.  Ty looked at her, a bit of his surprise leaking through to his face.  Well, he certainly hadn't expected that.  Tentatively, he watched her face, her eyes on her hand as it scratched an itch on her cheek.  Then Kai was looking at him again, a slight smile on her face.

"What?" he said, truly lost for what she doing.

She didn't reply, only rolled onto her stomach next to him, propped on her elbows.  A glint of silver caught his eye as she moved, the lights from outside just now seeping through the blinds.  Almost instinctively, he reached for the glint, only to find he was being handed it instead.  Kai seemed to see his interest in it so had taken the necklace, as he now saw it was, off and given it to him.  The flash of silver he'd seen was the pendant on the chain itself: the former Rebel Alliance, now New Republic symbol.  With a grin, he returned it to her, though was still slightly perplexed as to her reasons for being here.

Again, she seemed to sense his thoughts- which, Ty reminded himself, she probably did.  Kai returned the necklace to its place and then looked at him, her face shadowed.

"Mom knew the person at Kessel," she said at last.  Ty blinked at her, some of his confusion clearing.  "Mom knew who he was when she was at the Imperial Academy.  I guess he used to be one of her friends..." her voice softened as she spoke, then halted when she sighed.  "His name, that she knew, was Reggie Grandar."

Kai looked down at her hands again, even as Ty ran his fingers through his hair.  Finally coming up with a question, he looked from the ceiling to her, asking, "Did she say anything about him?"

To his slight surprise, Kai began to laugh slightly.  It wasn't exactly a fun sound, but it wasn't a pained laugh either.  Silently waiting out her time of mirth, he watched her, waiting for the answer.

"Yeah," she said, a grin still in place.  "She said she'd kill the bastard."  Kai shook her head, smirking now, at what her mother had said.

Privately, Ty agreed with his aunt.  If he found the jerk, he'd kill him.  Looking over at Kai again, he shook his head as well, though for different reasons.  "What's so wrong with that?  I'd kill him.  No, wait.  I _will kill him, not would."_

Kai's expression turned stony at once and she looked back down at her hands again.  Her lips moved, and at first Ty thought that she was mouthing words to herself.  On closer inspection, he realized she was speaking to him.  Ty rolled on his side to face her, head bent to her level, as it had been taken off his pillow.

"People will say that," she said softly, "but then will they actually do it?"  Her dark gaze rose to meet his.  "You and Mom both say that, but will you really?  I swear Mom must've gone out with him at one point.  Wouldn't that have some effect on killing someone?"

Ty stared at her for a moment, blinking every few seconds.  Adra had gone out with someone other than Uncle Face?  There was something new.  On second thought, he realized he shouldn't be so naïve about that sort of thing, considering his aunt had been an Imperial at one time in her life, whether willing or not.

He watched silently as Kai shimmied over on her elbows to the edge of his bed, and balanced on her right one to fish something out of her pocket.  The briefest glimpse of a datapad was afforded him, no doubt becoming very uncomfortable to lie on.  She let the thing drop to the floor next to his bed, watching it to see, no doubt, where it went.

Almost by impulse, or maybe not, Ty wrapped his arm around her stomach, pulling her back toward him.  Nearly a second later, he could feel Kai's muscles tighten, her quiet breathing coming in short jerks.  Understanding her sudden change, Ty loosed his hold instantly, offering a hurried apology in the Force.

It took a minute, but Kai did calm down.  Silently, Ty cursed himself for forgetting, even for a few moments.  He was going to have to talk to Aunt Adra...and soon.  See if he could get a look at her holoimage of this 'Reggie Grandar' person.  At current though, he was more interested in Kai's actions.

She was on her stomach again, face in hands.  Her shoulders seemed to slump, not quite in a sigh, but in something more unexplainable.  After an unknown amount of time- Ty didn't bother to look at the chrono- Kai lifted her head from her hands and looked over at him.  "I'm sorry," she began.  Ty quickly shook his head.  He didn't want to hear her say 'sorry', not when it hadn't been her fault.

Silence followed as she readjusted herself to a place against Ty's side, head tucked against his chest.  Just as quietly, Ty wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her head.  Yes, he would be talking to Aunt Adra very soon.  Very, _very soon._


	6. Sighted

**Chapter Six - Sighted**

Liselle couldn't help grinning at the sight in front of her.  Well, she could, but she didn't try not to.  Kai and Ty were laughing at each other, as they both tried to top the other's politician impression.  Kai had just completed her recitation of Mon Mothma's _Declaration of Rebellion_, or at least the beginning of it.  By the time she'd gotten to the word 'Goals', she'd begun laughing.  Though Lis knew her sibling and Kai very well, she couldn't help but feel that something had gone on between them that had changed their entire view on each other.  In the past week, both had been nothing short of buoyant and ecstatic except when there was reference made to Kessel, the Loran twins' mission there, or Reggie Grandar.  But that was entirely understandable, of course.

Reggie Grandar.  Inyri and she had been given a datacard with a holoimage of the man, though it was over 15 years old, to show to the squadron.  According to Aunt Adra, he looked much the same now.  How she knew that, Lis didn't know, but she had a suspicion it was because of something going on between Kai and her mother.  But that was nothing she should be nosing in, so she didn't.

Instead, she continued walking, Rane's arm over her shoulder.  Inyri, Dav, Tynian, Kai, Rane, and she had all gone for a walk in the city-planet's park.  The walk had originally been planned by Kai and Tynian who had wanted to go 'wander' Coruscant's main streets, but Aunt Adra and Nicola had both insisted they not go alone.  Though nothing was said on the topic, Lis knew it was because of the holoimage in her pocket and, Aunt Adra had privately told she and Inyri, some sort of dreams Kai had had.

Walking behind Rane and she were Inyri and Dav, no doubt discussing some antic of their younger siblings.  Ahead were Kai and Tynian, the latter now doing his best Iella-impression.  When the two of them were younger, she wouldn't have believed anyone if they had told her they would end up dating and would actually end up talking at great length.  Kai had been a miniature Aunt Adra in that she lived for her computers.  Ty had been a younger version of their father: quiet and always trying to stay out of the way unless something would go wrong otherwise.  Then something had happened, about two years ago actually, that had gotten those two together.

A sudden sense of discomfort washed through her and it took Lis a minute to realize it was coming through her connection with Inyri.  That connection was an odd one, since she and Meli weren't really triplets with Inyri, yet it still existed in its own right.  Lis turned around quickly, extricating herself from under Rane's arm.  Inyri was staring ahead of Kai and Ty, looking at the figure of someone beyond the visible fountain.  Lis followed her gaze to make out the very distinct profile she'd been studying only that morning.  A scowl formed quickly on her face at the sight of him.

_You seeing him too?_ Inyri's voice came across her mind as her 'sister' walked up to stand next to her.  Not even bothering to look over at her in more than a glance, she nodded.  How could she not see the damned Imperial?

The man seemed to sense their focus on him, because he promptly disappeared into a passing crowd of people.  As he did so, Lis silently cursed that the park was crowded today.  It was then she noticed Inyri was not standing next to her any more.  Instead, she had moved over to where her younger sister was standing.  Quickly, Lis ran up next to them, looking between Kai and Inyri.  Ty was still holding Kai's hand, his expression drawn.  Kai herself was white-faced and wide-eyed, staring at the point both Lis and Inyri had seen Mr. Reggie Grandar.

Next to her, Inyri was trying to get Ty to release Kai's hand so she could lead her sister to a bench.  Lis sighed to herself as Ty stubbornly refused and instead led Kai to a bench himself.  By this time, the Fel twins had gotten over being startled into realizing their respective girlfriends had moved away very quickly and were once again standing near the group.

Lis glanced over her shoulder to try to relocate Grandar, but again had no luck.  And the park was too crowded for her to even think about being able to hone in on his Force presence.  So instead she looked quickly to Rane and then on to Kai.  The girl looked, if possible, even paler than she had a moment ago.

"What is it?" Inyri was asking her.  "What's wrong?"

Before anyone else could throw in their two credits, Kai was on her feet again.  She'd turned around to stare behind her to another walkway that was perhaps thirty yards away.  The trees afforded a view of it, though it was at a distance.  Kai's lightsaber was in her hand as she watched it, though not activated.

And then Lis saw what the girl was seeing.  Grandar was leaning against a tree directly across from where they now stood.  He was puffing on a cigarra, his expression taunting.  Somehow, the younger girl had managed to notice the Imperial's Force presence, even in this large a crowd, not that Lis had any doubt as to why or how.

Though Kai still looked ghostly pale, her expression had contorted into one of hatred.  Slightly behind her and to the left stood Ty, lightsaber also in hand.  And behind his back, Ty was holding a blaster.  And then, as quickly as he had been seen, he was suddenly gone again.

Her expression drawn, Lis looked around them quickly, only to find Inyri doing the same.  There was, once again, no sign of Reggie Grandar.  Unfortunately, that didn't make their position in the area any safer.  If anything, it made it worse.  In the course of a half hour in the park, they'd learned three very important things.  One: Grandar was on Coruscant.  Two: He seemed to be stalking them.  Three:  He was _very good at disappearing._

Lis glanced at Inyri again, having heard her triplet's thoughts moving on a very same thread as her own.  It was hardly surprising, after all, but it was still the same.  _We need to move,_ Inyri said, looking around them again.  _We need to move **now**.  I keep getting a feeling that if we see him again today it's not going to be a simple 'passing look'._  Agreeing, Lis nodded to Inyri and then looked at Kai, who had turned to face the rest of the group, and Ty, who'd done the same.

"We need to go, you guys," Liselle said, looking around the group.  "We need to go back to base and we need to go _now_.  Inyri and I keep getting a sense that if we don't we're asking for trouble."

Without any sign of argument, the rest of the group nodded and they all began moving off towards Wraith Headquarters.

* * * * *

Nicola looked up quickly as the six teenagers entered the room.  Immediately, she knew something had gone wrong.  Inyri and Lis kept glancing at each other and were probably having a conversation through the bond they shared with each other and Meli.  The Fel twins also seemed to be conversing through their twin bond, Rane nodding every now and then.  Perhaps half a minute after they'd walked into the lounge, they were walking out again.  And then Nicola's gaze turned on her son and his girlfriend.

Now, Nicola prided herself as being someone who had seen a great many things in her life, and she was right in doing so.  However, she'd never seen a live human being with a face as white as her 'niece's' was now.  Almost instantly she was standing from her rather comfortable seat and was walking towards Lis and Inyri.  When she was within three feet of them, she glanced between the two and spoke.  "Alright, what went wrong?"  Before either of them could answer, Adra walked into the room, Bror following.  The Fel boys followed after, apparently having gone to get them.

Briefly, Nicola reminded herself why she liked those two, but then reverted her attention to her husband and Adra.  They both were looking between the six teenagers, taking in what they could from appearances and the Force.  After what seemed an hour, they both looked back at Nicola herself.

_What happened?_ Bror asked quietly.  His question was immediately repeated by Adra, only not quite so quietly.

_I don't know.  I've yet to get an answer from those two,_ she gestured at the oldest of the 'kids' present.  _And I highly doubt asking Tynian or Kaizan would get us very far._

Adra's eyebrow was raised by the end of her answer.  Sighing, Nicola shook her head, and then looked over at Tynian and Kai.  With a bit of unease at doing it, she asked Bror, _Could you see if you could get past your padawan's shielding and find out what went wrong?_  She received an instant affirmative from her husband.  Adra was already beyond using the Force in that sense and instead was taking a more direct route:  interrogate the boyfriend.

"Ty, what happened?" Nicola heard her friend ask.

Shaking her head again, Nicola turned back to the Fel twins, Inyri and Liselle.  "Alright you four, answer me now."


	7. Untold History

**Chapter Seven – Untold History**

It was three weeks after the park incident.  Kai sat, rocking back and forth ever so slightly on the couch, eyes open and staring at the floor in front of her.  She had been sitting in much the same spot for the last fifteen minutes, eyes glued on the same spot.  Past their unseeing gaze, Kai kept getting flashes of that night at Kessel.  The memories sped up in front of her eyes, the moments replaying in a taunt of what she couldn't defend herself from, showing her again and again how much real influence she had over what went on with every aspect of her.  Just in the same way she couldn't help liking- loving?- Tynian, she couldn't defend the one thing she really had complete possession of in this galaxy: herself.  Not even with help from the Force had she been able to get a proper defense made.  If only she hadn't left her lightsaber behind...  If only...

Feeling a tear slide down her cheek, Kai quickly and silently wiped it from her face, eyes closing to stop any more from leaking out.  Her uncle had literally dug past her shields three weeks ago to find out what had happened at the park.  Since then, she'd kept getting flash reminders of her failures.  Right now Uncle Bror, Aunt Nicola, and her own parents were all sitting at a table, talking about the events of that day, their constant subject whenever in the lounge.  Kai quietly drew her knees to her chest and put her face in the material of her pants.

"Hey," a soft voice spoke next to her, "you alright?"

Kai shot her older sister a withering look even as the rest of the group that had been at the park gathered around to find seats.  She returned her face to her knees and quickly freed her arms from being crossed between her stomach and thighs.  Instead, they wrapped around her knees, almost as if she were afraid of the results if she released them.  In a way, she was.  She was afraid of what Ty would end up thinking of her in the long run, she was afraid of what would be said about her to Aunt Jaina or Keira.  And, maybe most, she was afraid of what Lis and Inyri might say.  If they told her to lay off flying for a while, she didn't know what she would do.

A hand on her shoulder startled her into realizing the other five were still there.  Kai picked up her head again, to find that Ty had seated himself next to her.  On her other side sat Lis and Inyri.  And then, standing in front of her, were the Fel twins.  Rane had his hand on her shoulder, a concerned look on his face.  Out of the corner of her eye, and through her bond with Ty, she both saw and felt him glaring at Rane.  Along with it came a sense of protectiveness, something Kai hadn't expected.

_Ty, enough.__  He's going out with Lis, remember?_ She looked over at him quickly, still a bit surprised at how Ty was looking at Rane.  Ty glanced at Kai, his expression changing instantly.

He seemed to sigh before he nodded.  _Still, I have every right to act this way._

Kai gave him an appraising look, raising an eyebrow.  Ty returned the look and nodded quickly, seeming to be trying to convince both himself and her at the same time.

Davin put a hand on his brother's shoulder and, a second later, Rane withdrew his hand from her shoulder.  Kai had to hide a smirk when she saw Rane glance at Ty.  Deciding quickly to defuse whatever might happen before it actually did, she quickly pulled Ty to his feet and began leading him towards the lounge exit.  Before they got there, Kai looked over her shoulder at her older sister, who Dav was now sitting next to.

"And Inyri," she said, getting a bit of pleasure from seeing her older sibling's head jump off her boyfriend's shoulder in just the same way Kai's had moved from Ty's on other occasions, "nothing was wrong."

Before any reply could catch up to her, she pulled Tynian into the hall.  At that point, Ty pulled her off in an opposite direction from the one she was going to take.  He led her down the hallway to the Junior Wraith squadron bunkrooms, which were now deserted.  Kai gave a soft, surprised yet pleased gasp as she was pressed again a wall between doors, Ty's lips on her own.

Even before the kiss ended, she felt weak at the knees.  This wasn't the first time she'd felt this way when kissing Ty, not at all.  When Ty finally pulled away, Kai was smiling as she tried to catch her breath.

A hand brushed her loose hair away from her face, a voice speaking at the same time.  "I love you, you know," Ty said softly to her, resting his cupped palm against her cheek.  Kai kept her eyes trained on his, even as she turned her head to kiss Ty's palm.

"I know," she said, just as softly, "and I love you."  It seemed to her that she was afraid to break the spell that had settled over them.  A second later, she was kissing Ty again, all other ideas that seemed to implant in her mind after Kessel stripped away.  Though momentarily dismissed, Kai subconsciously knew they'd be back.

This time she pulled away first, taking in the air that had been absent the past few moments.  Her lungs refilled, she connected her hands loosely behind his neck, feeling his grip tighten a bit on her back.  "What's _really wrong, Ty?" she asked finally._

He sighed, glancing away from her a moment, before looking back.  "I'm going to kill that bastard, Kai." Her gaze remained locked on his, even if her mind was telling her how close those words sounded to the ones her mother voiced.  "He hurt you," Ty was saying, still holding her close, "He hurt you and I'm going to kill him for it."

Knowing it probably wouldn't do any good to argue, Kai merely tightened her hold on him and nodded into his chest.

A sudden voice startled her out of her thoughts and she raised her head from Ty's chest to see who was speaking.  It was Doran.

"You know, it would be really nice if you'd get a room," he was saying.  "That way we poor bystanders who were coming to get datapads don't feel like we're interrupting something."

Kai raised an eyebrow at him, ready to tell the nineteen-year-old to shove off, only to come up with a better idea.  Keeping her face blank and tone innocent, she turned her grin into an exaggerated version of a seductive smile.  "Well, by all means then Doran, perhaps you should let the rest of the group know that they should stick away from this hallway."

Doran gave her a disgusted look as he rolled his eyes.  "Continue on like that, Kai, and people will start to think you _let_ that Grandar guy have fun with you."

The second he'd stopped speaking, Kai had extricated herself from Ty's arms, his blaster now in her hand and aimed at Doran.  Her joking remarks now forgotten, she took the few steps to where Doran was standing and put the tip of the blaster under his chin.

"Say it again, suggest it in any way, and I'll kill you," she told him, voice deadly soft.

Doran immediately dropped his datacards and his hands rose to the air at the sides of his head.  "I'm sorry, really Kai.  I won't say it again; I don't know why I even said it in the first place."

She stared up at him for a moment longer, her dark eyes studying his expression.  Finally, she nodded and turned to walk back to Ty, her hair flipping over her shoulder.  Even as she handed her boyfriend his blaster, she felt Doran's Force presence leave the immediate area.

Seconds passed and then Ty strung his arm over her shoulders.  Through the Force, she could sense his feeling of fun.  The smile on his face mimicked the feeling.  Kai's face slowly began to copy his smile as she was led through the newly opened door.  _What if I agree with Doran about getting a room? his voice asked in her head, just as the door closed behind them._

Kai didn't answer him, in neither words, nor the Force.  Instead, she let him pull her into his lap in his new sitting-on-the-bed status.  On either side of his legs, her knees imbedded themselves in the blankets even as Ty pulled her down to him for a kiss.  In some part of her mind, a voice was screaming at her to leave the room _now.  The other part that wasn't consumed with kissing Ty quickly shut the voice up, reminding her uncertainties that she and Ty had gone out for two years, that he'd never intentionally hurt her.  And- the voice flared up again- that she wanted to do this._

This time her conscience was asking her if this wasn't just a bit soon after her run in with Grandar.  She brushed the ideal off again; she'd worry about it later if she thought it was a bad decision.  Kai felt herself begin to overbalance at that moment and began to attempt to correct the problem.

Ty rested back on his elbows as he watched her, a slight smile on his face.  Unconsciously, Kai licked her lips as she tied back her shaken loose bun into a ponytail.  The moment she finished the task, Kai felt a heat course through her again as Ty rose to meet her in a kiss.

* * * * *

The lounge at Wraith headquarters was loud, noisy, and body-filled.  Jaina and Jag were sitting at a table to her right, where Tyria and Cloud were sitting as well.  Nicola smiled as Adra whispered something into Inyri's ear, the girl immediately smirking.  Face was looking at the rest of the Wraith kids, as thought looking for someone.  Or a pair of someones...

Nicola looked around, suddenly noticing the absence of her son and his girlfriend.  Quickly, she looked over to Adra, only to find her friend already looking at her.

_Where's Kaizan?_ she asked her friend.

Adra raised an eyebrow at Nicola, her expression changed from the joking one it wore before.  _Dunno__.  Where's Tynian?_

Immediately, both of them looked over at Koyi and Garik.  The missing-in-action teenagers' siblings were sharing a kiss just as both mothers looked over.  About to demand they get over to where she and Adra were, Nicola was interrupted by Face.

"Adra, where's Kai?  And Ty, for that matter..."  Face trailed off as he put some sort of two and two together.  Glancing over at them, Nicola saw her friend patting her husband's knee, ignoring the direct question.

"Garik," she heard Adra say, just as Nicola herself said, "Koyi."

The two of them looked over immediately, not a hint of surprise or embarrassment filtering off of them.  Koyi shrugged, grabbed Garik's hand, and pulled him over to where their respective parents were sitting.

Adra stood up at the same time as Nicola herself stood, and they glanced at each other.  The room continued its noise, etc., but they didn't pay it any attention.

"Alright you two, where are your twins?" Nicola asked evenly.  She saw Garik cringe, then heard a quiet sigh.  "What?"

"Well, Kai... she cut herself off from me ever since Kessel.  I couldn't tell you.  I'm sorry," Garik said, shaking his head.

Koyi, it appeared, was deep in thought.  Or the Force.  After a moment, she shrugged.  "Well, he's around base, but I couldn't tell you what he's doing.  He's severed our bond for the moment.  I only know he's on base because he seems really... I dunno... happy?"  She shrugged again, then lead Garik away without waiting for the 'okay' to go.

Nicola slumped back on the couch, heaving a sigh.  Adra, however, had turned to her.  Or, rather, Bror.  "She's your padawan," Adra accused him.  "You're supposed to be able to find her."

Bror looked up at Adra, unimpressed with her argument, and sighed.  Nicola looked at her husband sharply, unsure if she wanted to know.  He looked at her quickly, then looked back at Adra.  "Kaizan is shielding herself, as you've obviously pointed out.  I made it a rule for myself when she started dating Tynian that I would not dig past whatever Force-walls she erected while both of them are missing, and obviously together."

Impressed, she blinked at her husband, then looked at Adra.  Her friend's expression was none-too-pleased.  But she sat back down next to Face and muttered something.  Just so long as Tynian and Kai weren't doing anything stupid, Nicola thought to herself.  And, considering what happened at Kessel, it didn't seem like much of a possibility.

* * * * *

Ty stretched, arms moving to rest behind his head.  His arms were about halfway moved when he realized exactly what his surroundings consisted of.  And that included a black-haired girl sleeping with her head resting against his chest.  As he saw Kai's back rise and fall discretely in breath under the sheet, memories came flooding back.

A bit of Kai's dark hair had loosened itself from the entirety that was splayed over the sheet, and it had instead decided to cross over her face.  Carefully, Ty pushed it off her face and tucked it behind her ear instead, trying not to disturb her at the same time.  He smiled at her, enjoying merely watching her sleep in complete peace.

Not even bothering to move again, Ty continued to survey his surroundings.  The chrono read 0742, and natural light was beginning to make entrance.  Closer to home, there was an assortment of clothes piled somewhat sloppily on the floor, Kai's white tank top on top.

At that moment, his attention returned to Kai's face.  Her left arm, which had been strung across his stomach, tightened its grip as if some sort of hug.  Next instant, she was moving to roll on her side, a smile appearing on her still-sleepy face, even as she blinked away her tired feeling.

When she finished yawning, Ty grinned at her as she resettled.  "G'morning," he heard her muffled voice say from his shoulder.

Chuckling a bit at her completely non-caring essence, he nodded.  His grin widened as Kai huddled closer to him, her expression lost in Ty's shoulder.  "Yes, it is.  However, it was 0742 last time I checked and we're going to have to forego having this wonderful morning to ourselves, unless you feel like helping me explain to your father why we're both extremely late and entering the lounge at the same time."

Kai removed her head from his shoulder, raising an eyebrow at him.  "Ah, Ty?" she said, "You do realize that Wraith squadron had an early-morning patrol, don't you?"  He stared at her, blinking quickly.  Kai laughed softly, the continued, "Apparently not.  Anyway, they won't be back until 0900.  So that only leaves us with explaining to your and my siblings and friends why we overslept.  Either that... we could just sort of 'appear' at 0855, and that wouldn't give any of them much time to question us before we get to go on patrol."  As she'd been speaking, she'd stretched and was now sitting up, sheet cover her still, in an unconscious thread of modesty.  Kai used the Force to call her clothes to her and began sorting through them.

"Well, I'm going to take a shower," Ty said, looking at her with a smile as she pulled yesterday's tank top on.  "I am going to assuming you're going back to your room to change and whatnot.  Am I right so far?"

She smiled over at him, nodding, then distracted herself with pulling her pants right side-out.

* * * * *

Liselle glared across the docking bay at her sibling.  Specifically the one who was leaning on his girlfriend's X-Wing while she checked something on one of her engines.  Shaking her head, Liselle walked over to Inyri's X-Wing, just as her friend jumped down.

"What's going on?" Inyri asked.  "More 'I'm going to kill my siblings' trouble?"

She shot her triplet a glare, but nodded after a moment.  Heaving a sigh, she said, "Yeah.  Sort of.  Ty and Kai were late this morning, I know you noticed, but the only problem is that Mom knows... and so does Aunt Adra.  And you know as well as I do that they're both going to all but interrogate those two."

Inyri shot her a look as she shooed Win away.  The little R2 droid, named Win or Die in a joking tribute to Inyri's father, twittered away to Kaizan's X-Wing where Kai's red droid, SO, was twittering around under his owner.  Two, Jacinta's droid, was there as well.  Kai, who had just jumped down from her port wings, shooed the three of them off as well.  Lis knew that Win, Two and SO would go to each and every droid around the place until they had all of Junior Wraith squadron's.  Then they'd go find Vape, XO and Ditto to find out how they could act more rebellious and get away with it.

At that moment, the group of now-four droids scattered away from a very angry figure crossing the platform.  Face Loran walked straight over to where his youngest child was refueling, her boyfriend next to her, talking about some subject or another.  Lis saw Inyri's eyes widen as she closed her mouth.  Even without the Force, Liselle understood why her friend had ducked behind her s-foils:  Uncle Face was ticked.

"Kaizan Loran and Tynian Afyon," Lis heard him growl. "Get over here," he demanded.

Kai, who'd just finished up refueling, glanced at her father with a sigh.  At that moment, Lis grabbed Inyri's arm and pulled her over towards the soon-to-be problem.  Inyri didn't bother protesting; instead, she shook Lis's hand free and quickened her pace.

"Dad," Inyri said as soon as she was in front of her sister's X-Wing, standing between the enraged pilot and his victim.  Her father seemed to snap out of his trance as he looked at her.  Quickly, Liselle went over to stand by her friend.  The hanger door opened again, this time admitting Adra Loran.  The Jedi pilot stalked over to Face, grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him away.

Liselle glanced over at Inyri, meeting her friend's smirk with her own as they both tried to keep from laughing.  Uncle Face was now looking at Aunt Adra, a silent battle of wills in full throttle.  Her uncle looked away first.  With a satisfied smirk, Aunt Adra shoved her husband off towards the building.  Then she turned to look at Inyri and Liselle.

"You need to go over punctuality with your pilots again.  And Nicola, Bror, Face and I need to speak with," she glared darkly at Kai and Ty, "our younger children."  Without even waiting on a reply, Adra turned and walked after her husband.

She looked over at Inyri quickly, silver eyes searching.  _What do you suppose that's over? Liselle finally asked._

But it wasn't Inyri who answered.  Instead, it was Kaizan's voice.  "It's over the disappearing act Ty and I pulled last night.  It is backed up with an argument about the two of us oversleeping this morning.  After we are made to feel worse than scum, we'll be told to stay away from each other.  Then, and only then, will they let us know what they absolutely _had to tell us about some update on what we can or cannot do, where we can or cannot go."  As she finished, Lis was looking over at her even as she heard Ty sniggering._

Lis was pleased to see Kai slap her boyfriend's chest to shut him up.  If she hadn't, Liselle herself wouldn't have been so nice; she would've gone Targeter.  However, that didn't stop her from poking fun.

"So," she said, glancing between them, "Doran's 'joke' wasn't quite a joke, was it?"

Kai's expression didn't chance in the least, nor did her Force presence.  Slowly a smile weeded itself onto her face.  "Maybe," she said simply.  "It depends on whether you mean the getting of a room bit, or," her face darkened immediately and she looked towards the end of the hanger.  After a brief pause, in which her gaze remained locked at the end of the hanger, she continued slowly and with half interest, "On 'letting' that Imperial bastard touch me."

As she'd been speaking, Lis noticed Kai had grabbed her lightsaber from her utility belt.  The blue-white blade ignited with a faint _snap-hiss_ and Kai walked slowly towards the door to the outside.  Lis looked between the oddly-behaving Kaizan to Inyri, then her brother.  Ty was watching his girlfriend, stance ridged.

By now, Kai was walking past the Wraith squadron crafts, just past Elex's X-Wing.  A second before Lis saw it happen, her warning sense flared.  Her hand fell to her lightsaber just as a shadowed figure came out from between Aunt Adra's X-Wing and her mother's A-Wing.  Shouts rose through the Force and by voices, but not before a blaster had its tip again the back of Kai's head.

Lis looked quickly at Inyri, only to find her already running into the building.  She looked at Ty next, seeing her brother rolling his hands into fists as he stared at the scene.  The rest of the Junior Wraiths were standing near the fronts of their crafts, some of them with lightsabers in hand, the rest with blasters.  Lis turned her gaze back to Kai and the Imperial, only to find the lightsaber was turned off as Reggie Grandar whispered something in Kai's ear.

Not even realizing her heart was pounding twice as fast as it usually did, Liselle watched as Kai turned to face the rest of them.  Still under blasterpoint, her right arm was now twisted behind her back, held by the Imperial asshole.  Silently, Lis hoped Inyri would get back soon, even though she'd hardly just gone.

Her wishes were granted, in a sense, as the door released into the hanger again.  Inyri ran back over to Liselle just as she saw her mother climbing silently up the back of her craft.  Her father was positioned by the ladder under it.  The same process was taking place over the rest of the Junior Wraith crafts, all of Intel's top undercover group armed with one weapon or other.

At that moment, Tynian gave a shout, drawing Lis's attention away from the Wraiths to Grandar and Kai.  The former was rubbing his knuckles on his jacket, the latter clutching the left side of her face.  Liselle had to keep telling herself not to be stupid to keep herself from firing at the koochoo.  He'd obviously used their divided attention to get in a better position to deliver a better-aimed punch at Kai's face.

It was obvious Ty was having a more difficult time resisting the urge to shoot, or other.  Rane and Davin Fel had him by one arm each, even as Ty's shoulders heaved with each of his breaths.  Lis kept her gaze on Grandar even as she checked the Force.  The Fel's were all present, obviously having been visiting yet again.

Even as Lis watched, Kai's arm was released, only to have the arm that was holding it before now wrapped around the front of her shoulders, keeping her from moving away.  Kai winced as the blaster tip was poked at a point under her jaw, making her lift her chin to keep the thing from jabbing.

Grandar was saying something to her again, something that didn't even make an echo at their end of the hanger.  Quite suddenly, a green-white blade was ignited, its tip just inches from entering the Imperial's neck.  As Adra began to speak, everyone could hear.

"Really Reggie?  I was under the impression you _enjoyed beating up the girls you knocked up."  Something in the way she said it made Liselle suddenly wonder what had happened in her aunt's history._

The Imperial laughed, a hollow sound that echoed around them.  Then the lightsaber came up, almost catching his chin.  Kai was immediately released.  Not only released, but shoved away just as the sound of a fired blaster met the hanger air.  Grandar jumped back as the lightsaber jerked up to connect with where his head was.  The only problem was that he was already out the door.

It was only then that Liselle noticed who or what the blaster had shot at.  Kai was sprawled across the floor face down.  Davin and Rane had already released Ty, so he was almost instantly at her side.  The rest of the adults came down from their points of defense, all of them gazing over at Adra, Tynian, and Kai every so often.

Face Loran shoved past the line of pilots in front of them, absently ordering everyone inside.  Inyri, however, grabbed Lis's arm as she made to go in.  Lis looked over at her, an eyebrow raised.  Her friend nodded to her sibling and Lis nodded.  Inyri released her as the two of them began to walk over.

Ty's face was dark as he looked up at them, his shadow falling over Kaizan's shoulder.  Over the shoulder that was growing in a rapid crimson color.  Aunt Adra was holding her daughter's wrist, seeming to be checking for a pulse of some kind.

As Liselle looked at her uncle, she heard her aunt mutter something.  Quietly, she took another step closer to see if she could hear the words.  "I'm going to murder him," Lis heard.  She cast Inyri a look that included a raised eyebrow, having just confirmed for herself that something had gone on between Reggie Grandar and Aunt Adra.

She wasn't given much a chance to ask, as it was then that Adra nodded to Ty.  Her brother rolled his girlfriend over to her uninjured side and scooped her into his arms, moving past Lis herself to bring Kai inside the building.  Aunt Adra glanced at her, then sighed and walked after her daughter, her husband with her.  Silently, Liselle was glad they'd restocked the makeshift medcenter recently.  With that, she followed her brother inside, Inyri walking next to her, though saying nothing.


	8. A Rewrite

**Chapter Eight – A Rewrite**

Adra sat on the couch, one of many in the Wraith lounge, and sighed softly, her gaze staring infinitely at the floor some ten feet in front of her.  Somewhere behind her, she could hear Inyri's laughter and the clatter of tumbling equipment.  Not long after, Face's joking voice made a comment that she completely missed.  Across the room, she could see Tynian sitting comfortably on another couch, Kai lying on her back next to him, head in his lap.

But she wasn't really watching those things.  She was thinking back to when she was Kai's age.  The worst year of her life, actually.  And then, seven years later, when she had thought she'd never hear another word of Reggie Grandar, she'd heard of him again.  Heard of him in the form of asking Ryok about his niece.

_"I didn't know Aerolin was every married."_

_Ryok shook his head.  "She wasn't.  She, er, had a one night stand with some 'Reggie Grandar' guy."_

_She felt herself pale.  "Oh."_

_"Speaking of whom," Ryok looked searchingly at her, "Her message said to ask you about him."_

_Adra didn't answer; instead, she sprinted in the opposite direction from where Ryok was standing.  There was no way in any of Corellia's hells that she'd bring up Reggie Grandar in a willing conversation._

Her experiences with the bastard were better left hidden off in the darkest part of her head.  Yet she'd all but given herself away three weeks earlier.  It was unintentional, of course, but it had still happened.  She had made a comment, specifically the comment pertaining to the fact that the Imperial had a fondness for beating up the girls he knocked up, and that comment had been thankfully overlooked.  Yet if anyone came to actually think about it, they'd have to wonder.  And Adra didn't think she wanted to just up and tell the galaxy the story.

A figure moved across her line of vision, stopping in front of her.  The fact that she could no longer see the previously-mentioned line on the floor caused Adra to blink back into reality.  She glanced upwards, not quite sure who she was expecting to see.  However, it certainly wasn't Cerne.  The girl was looking at her, a thoughtful line drawn across her face.

"Aunt Adra, could I talk to you?" Ray asked from only a few steps away.

With a sigh, Adra nodded.  "You want to talk here or someplace else?"

The girl nodded to the door, obviously giving her answer.  Without a sound, Adra got up from the couch, following the 21 year old out into the hallway.  The black-haired girl stopped and turned to face her, her eyes cast in slight shadow.  If Adra had been able to clearly see Ray's eyes, she could've been able to get a feel for the Intel officer's mood.  However, it didn't appear she had that luck today.  So instead, she waited for Cerne to speak, now walking slowly next to her down the hallway.

At last, Adra heard the girl intake air.  "I know I'm not really a part of Wraith or anything, and I know I've been offworld for the past year and a half.  However, I've really been trying to catch up on everything."  She paused, seeming to collect her thoughts.  "I've gotten the information from numerous sources among the Requiem and Junior Wraith squadrons.  It all leads me to ask the question that I never thought I'd have a need to ask you."  Even as Cerne took another breath, Adra had the strangest suspicion she knew what was coming.  She was going to be asked the very thing Ryok had tried to get an answer out of her over.  The problem was, she'd probably have to give the answer.

"I understand that this probably isn't the best time to ask you about this, and I'm sure it is also one of your least favorite subjects," Ray continued.  "But I'd like to know what my mother meant in reference to asking you about your side story with Reggie Grandar.  Before you snap at me and tell me to mind my own business, I want to just say something.  You're bound to be asked about your comment by Uncle Face, or someone who knows you well enough.  It's something I'm sure they've just not gotten around to doing.  Between Aunt Iella and Aunt Winter, though, both Intel and I would like to understand what we're not hearing."

As the girl finished, Adra stopped walking, her feet not obeying her commands to keep going any more.  Instead, she merely raised a hand to each of her temples, rubbing them vigorously, as though that would clear up this whole mess.  Force, what did she do to deserve this?  However, Adra almost thought she knew; she'd avoided it for so long, she couldn't just ignore it anymore.  There would be no way she could help Kai with her own experiences if she couldn't get over her own.

She glanced to either side of the hallway, wondering it there was a room she and Cerne could have this conversation in without interruption.  However, that didn't seem like such a possibility so instead she gestured towards the courtyard-type extension of the Wraith grounds.  Back when there were still four year olds running around this place, they'd gotten the New Republic to build the garden and walkways for the kids to play around in.  Now it was just a good place to think, even if it was on the small side.

Once the two of them were walking down a path away from the building, Adra began, fighting her desire to slip away from the conversation every step of the way.  "I assume you're going off the comment I made to Grandar in the Wraith hanger."  She glanced quickly at Ray, who nodded quietly, still listening.  Adra took a breath of air and released it, hoping to calm her nerves.  "I knew Reggie from the days when I was in the Imperial Academy on Bastion, flew against him quite a bit in the sims.  He used to be one of my best friends, actually.  When I left with Yaddle, I never expected to become anything more than a pilot who died when she was 25 or 30 years old.  I thought I might even live to see 40, if I was lucky enough and studied hard enough at the Temple.

"I was nine when I hacked into the Bastion City files and sent them anonymously to Intel.  I figured I was doing them a favor and everything, sending them the information.  It didn't take them too long to figure out who'd done the work.  After that, I was constantly going from Intel headquarters in my 'spare time', hacking files with Tyria.  That's how we met, actually.  When I became a Jedi Knight, which only took me four more years to accomplish, Iella offered me a position in the field of undercover operations.  I figured, hey, why not?

"My third mission took me to Bastion.  There I met up with Reggie again.  He was older than I was by about six years, but he didn't know that.  My op cover said I was seventeen, and at that point, I got away with it.  Cosmetics helped, of course.  My mission in Bastion lasted three months, during which time I guess you could say we two started seeing each other.  I don't know why I did that; I should've ignored him from the beginning of that mission.  It was my mistake."  Adra sighed then, shaking her head over the memories.  She really had been a fool.

"Anyway, about two weeks before my mission was drawing to a close, as I was there for information only on the three month timeframe, I basically called the relationship off.  As I'm sure you've deduced of Grandar's character by now from everything everyone else might've told you, he's a bit of a control freak.  Details withheld, I ended up going back to Coruscant unknowingly pregnant and beaten up worse than I'd ever been, until Daala," she finished.  Adra's mind was running through everything she'd left out, everything she'd never told people about her life.  Iella and Winter had gotten the major, need to know details, but beyond that, Adra had been distant about it.

Only then did she realize they'd stopped walking.  Cerne didn't appear at all phased by the knowledge that her father, a man she'd never truly met, enjoyed raping women, beating them bloody, and leaving then to raise a kid or two on their own.  Finally the girl looked over at Adra, and she thought she saw understanding in the gray-green eyes.

"Thanks, Aunt Adra," she said, a slight smile etching over her mouth.  "Thanks for telling me."  Ray paused, then said, "I'm going to venture a guess, but you never told anyone outside Intel about that, did you?"

Adra smiled slightly.  "Correct."

Cerne nodded, seeming to go back to her world of equations.  Then she looked up again, the smile still there.  "Well, I guess I've gotta say thanks for trusting me enough to tell me that information.  What happened to Kai must seem like a horrible rewrite of your life."

"You have no idea," Adra answered distantly, staring at the brick tile in front of her.  "You have absolutely no idea."


	9. Down Time

**Chapter Nine – Down Time**

Adra walked slowly down the hallway towards the room she and Face shared, not quite sure what she was thinking.  In her head, the conversation she'd had with Ryok's niece and all the other instances and memories that had sprung up.  So consumed was she within her thoughts, she hardly noticed punching in the password on the control panel.  The door opened and she walked into the main room of the apartment, allowing her eyes a moment to adjust to the lack of light.

A figure she knew all too well was sitting at the table, one hand on the table itself, the other's elbow on the table, his face in the free hand.  It didn't take the Force to figure out what had happened.  She should've known he'd find out, should've paid more attention to the flicker in the Force.  Yet she'd been so consumed by her thoughts and the words forming off them that she hadn't realized what should've been obvious.  Face had overheard the conversation she'd had with Cerne, that much she knew.  The only problem was that she hadn't told him prior.

She stopped moving two paces into the room, her right hand going to her mouth, as if pinching her lip would make the situation better.  Face said nothing to her, merely continued to stare at the table.  Instead of moving, Adra probed him carefully with the Force, trying to muddle out what he was upset about, pretty simply, what else his reactions were.

The answers she managed to supply for herself weren't the ones she could've wanted.  On top of Face's list was killing Grandar, she'd guessed as much before, yet underneath was an emotion she couldn't put her name on.  With a sigh that broke the eerie silence, Adra decided to speak.

"Are you really that mad at me?" she asked softly, musing to herself that speaking the question too loudly would cause a reaction she wasn't sure she wanted.

It didn't take more than a second for Face to lift his head from his hands and reply.  "That's a stupid question Adra."

Oops.  Guess the theory on speaking to loudly didn't work.  Closing her eyes, Adra just stared into the back of her eyelids for a few seconds.  The only way this conversation wouldn't end in a full-out fight would be by one of them leaving.  Since she was closest to the door, Adra took that initiative upon herself, only commenting once before turning to leave.

"I'm sorry Face," was all she said before exiting through the door she'd just entered.

* * * * *

Face heard her words, but didn't reply.  He was too wrapped up in his own thoughts about the whole situation.  First it was just Kai that was raped, or at least that he knew about, and then he found out that the bastard that lay hand on his youngest daughter did the same thing to his wife.  Not only that, he'd been blind to the second bit of that until he'd overheard Adra talking to Ryok's niece.  As of current status, he was beyond pissed, though at whom he couldn't level-headedly say.  He was going to murder Grandar, that was for sure, but he still didn't know what he was going to do about the fact Adra had never mention that 'little' part of her history.

It was true, he'd never actually asked her for a complete run down of her life, yet of all things you'd think he might've heard about a previous affiliation with any other man that might've resulted in a child.  Yet, he knew this bit for certain, Adra hadn't had any other kids but their four.

The room itself was beginning to look a bit old, considering he'd stared at the same things for the last twenty minutes.  With a grumbling sigh, Face stood, wondering where he'd go.  On closer inspection of his thoughts, he knew.  The pilot walked to the door, exiting through it just as Adra had minutes earlier.  His wristchrono now read 1947; Kai wouldn't be asleep yet.

However, all his thoughts on perhaps talking to his daughter were hindered in their planning stages.  She was not in the lounge, as she had been thirty minutes earlier, and she certainly wasn't in her room.  That left, sadly, too many places for her to be.  However, that didn't mean he couldn't ask one of his other children to use their all-knowing Force to find out for him.

His search brought him to the spare conference room that Inyri had reverted into some kind of 'studio'.  More correctly, it was the official 'Actor's Den' to most Wraiths.  Well, that's what happened when he had an actress for a daughter.  The girl would sit in the same place for over an hour, working up the most intricate and discombobulating scripts one ever would imagine, then she'd swoop down upon then in the lounge or other and hand out scripts.  It was rather interesting, actually.

But that wasn't the reason Face was here looking for Inyri.  No, it was to help him locate Kaizan.  Inyri, as expected, was sitting calmly in a chair, feet propped on the table, datapad in hand.  When the door opened, Face saw her look up to see him.

"Hey Dad," she grinned, putting the datapad aside.

Face nodded to her, offering a smile.  Skipping introductions, he jumped straight to the chase.  "Can you tell me where Kai is?"

Inyri appeared to be debating fulfilling the request or merely glaring at him- a trick learned from watching her mother.  It was always a little bit scary to see Inyri pulling off Adra's expressions; they looked just a little too similar for his tastes.

At last though, the girl nodded.  "Yes, of course.  She's off with Tynian, and they're in his room."  And with that, Inyri went back to her datapad.

From her reply, Face had to wonder if he actually wanted to go to the Afyon boy's room.  Then again, the thoughts of what might happen if he _didn't_ were equally horrible.  So he turned and left Inyri to her work, passing Davin Fel on his way out.

The trek to Tynian Afyon's room was hardly one that might be called long.  He pressed the door comm and then waited.  Seconds later- which surprised him- the door slid silently back.  The younger of the two pilots stepped back from the door and Face walked in.  Inside, the room was sparsely lit, and on the desk, a holodisplay showed what looked like a simulator recording.

Turning back to Ty, Face raised an eyebrow.  "Sorry if I'm a bit touchy right now, but I'm not in the mood for small talk.  Where's my daughter?"

"Asleep, actually," the boy answered.  Face didn't change his expression.  Tynian elaborated, frowning slightly.  "We just got the simulator holorecording of the Junior Wraith thing Lis and Inyri had us do a few days ago.  We were taking the moment to go over it and figure out what we could've done better.  Our glorious squadron leaders want it back tomorrow."  He shrugged.  "Kai just sort of dozed off, so I put her in my bed."

While the whole concept disturbed him on some level that his sixteen-year-old daughter was spending more time with a boyfriend, whom he thought it might be better if she didn't have, he didn't dote on that idea for more than a second.  Two years ago he'd promised himself not to do anything that would drive the two of them apart, ever since he'd seen Kai crying over disappointing him.  That didn't mean there wasn't some fiber of him itching to hand Tynian an activated explosive.

Finally, Face spoke.  "Aha."  The pilot looked over to the other open door across the room and saw a shadowed form lying in the darkness.  With a smile threatening to turn his lips upward, Face looked back at Ty.  "Well, I guess you wouldn't be half bad to talk to over this then."

To the kid's credit, he didn't look overly perplexed.  He just pulled out his desk chair and sat on it facing backwards, arms crossed over the top of it.  Face took that as an invitation to sit and talk.  He chose rather to sit on the couch, and did so in a very melodramatic way.  Tynian merely watched him, obviously waiting for him to start.  Stifling a sigh, Face pondered how he wanted to begin.  Realizing it didn't even matter, he just shook his head and decided to do the logical thing: improvise your script.

"I guess I want to know what your take on this whole affair are," he said, rather lamely, he thought.

That obviously hadn't been what Tynian was thinking this whole 'chat' was about.  Nonetheless, the boy recovered from the initial surprise quickly and easily.  "I'm assuming you're talking about Kessel and the events that took place there," Ty remarked.  Face merely nodded, inviting him to continue.  "And I assume you mean other than wanting to kill Grandar."

_Well,_ Face thought, _at least I'm not the only one._

"I guess I'm really just trying to get used to it."  Tynian shrugged, shaking his head, seeming to banish another thought.  "It's just...gah.  I don't even know.  It's frustrating, but it's not like I'm upset at Kai.  It wasn't her fault, after all."

Face nodded, understanding the Jedi's words quite well.  "That's understandable."

Ty nodded, then continued.  "It's like being on the outside looking in at something knowing you can do absolutely _nothing_ about it.  I don't like that feeling at all...especially not when it involves my girlfriend."

Perhaps it was the way Tynian spoke; perhaps it was the words themselves.  However, something about it had a really insightful effect for Face.  While he still was upset at Adra over not telling him about Grandar, he could specifically relate to Ty.  And, in their brief exchange, he also got insight to the particulars of Kai and Tynian's relationship.  The universe was by no means perfect for him, but it was looking up.

He and Ty had a few exchanges of small talk before Face stood up from his point on the couch, rubbing his forehead with a hand as he did so.  It was definitely turning into a long day.  "See you later then."

Tynian merely nodded to him, and with that, Face took his leave.  Now if he could think of a way of talking to his MIA wife without making it out that he was requesting an apology, since he _technically_ didn't need to give her one.  This was going to be interesting.


	10. Unwanted Memories

**Chapter Ten – Unwanted Memories**

_Her entire body was aching beyond anything it ever had before.  If she'd had a guess, running the entire city-planet of Coruscant wouldn't hurt this much.  But then again, she also had not just run Coruscant.  The only term flashing in her mind for what had been done was 'rape'.  The sun was coming slowly over the horizon, but it's magnificence was lost on Kai._

_Instead, her thoughts were consumed with the bruises that covered her, the bruises that she was trying to use the Force to heal even now.  She walked past her brother as she entered their 'residence', all the while saying nothing to him.  She knew that she looked a real mess, but she didn't care.  She just wanted to be left alone._

_Garik caught her arm, his gaze foggy as intoxication through alcohol seemed to be trying to overpower his mind.  But Kai didn't even bother with it; she merely jerked her arm from his reach, the idea of someone touching her a thought she didn't want to process.  Her twin's brow furrowed as she back away from him.  "Kai, what happened?  Kai?"_

"Kai?"

She opened her eyes to see a shadowed blue pair looking straight back at her.  The last time she'd heard her name, it must've been Tynian speaking.  Opposite her, she saw the blonde 18-year-old breathing a sigh of relief.  Her eyes were still locked on his and continued as such for a moment more.

Another minute passed, in which time she rolled from her stomach to her side, rubbing a phantom bruise as she went.  She stopped moving when Ty decided to.  He sat down on the edge of the bed, his bed, and stared down at her.  It was only then that she realized she had been asleep in his room.  Her mind jumped through the last conscious situations she remembered, at last coming to rest on the holovid of the sims.  She must've dozed off while watching one.  Logic only said that Ty had moved her from the couch to his bed out of common courteously.

With a start, she realized she still hadn't said anything.  But she didn't do anything to change that.  Kai just continued on thinking about her memory.  At last, the silence was broken by a voice in her head.

_Hey, you okay?_

Tynian's voice, she knew.  _Yeah, I'm fine._  She also knew she didn't sound very convincing, but oh well.  Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw her boyfriend's expression.  Offering a sheepish grin, she lowered her gaze from his and stifled a yawn with her hand.

Silence ruled the air once more, both exterior and inside her head as well.  Kai watched as Tynian randomly smoothed a spot of blanket that was already impeccably positioned.  She opened her mouth to say something, but shut it again, not sure what actually could be said.  Before she had much of a chance to think or comprehend anything else, she drifted back into some haze of blackness.

_It makes no difference; nothing makes a difference anymore.  There's nothing you can do, so why bother trying?  You can't do anything.  Just pretend this isn't happening, just close you eyes and cut yourself off from everything.  This is just a dream, a horrible nightmare.  You're going to wake up screaming in a minute, this isn't real.  There's nothing you can do but wait for yourself to wake up._

_But it certainly wasn't a dream.  Ever fiber of reality was making sure it was flashing neon.  This wasn't something she was going to wake up from.  She was right here, right now, no matter what she tried to force herself into believing.  And whatever she wished to be true would never be true again, if it involved this event never happening.  And the event itself was not one she ever wanted to remember, not something she wanted to keep for the rest of her life.  But it would remain.  It would remain, as would the emotions coming with it: the fear, the anger, the self-loathing, the doubt...everything._

_Time was something of illusion, because in total Kaizan didn't know how much of it had elapsed in her brief 'abduction', but it seemed like forever and nothing.  Shock had, at first, prevented her use of the Force, but by the time it had worn off, or perhaps it was having sense literally punched into her, the threats had been made that if she used the Force, she and those she loved would be dead before they knew what hit them._

_And right there, that was something she couldn't live with._

The thoughts and mental images faded, leaving her once again staring at a pair of eyes.  She had no idea what her expression was now.  This couldn't be happening, not again.  The shadow-cast eyes she'd been watching were blue once more; blue and warm, not harsh.

It was at times like these that Kai had to wonder just how much leaked out to her boyfriend.  Yes, he was two years older than her, which meant he had had time to use the Force more.  But then again, Tynian was not the sort of person who'd just openly barge into another person's thoughts unless it was necessary for the moment...would he?  Somehow she didn't think so.

Kai, still on her side, closed her eyes in thought for a moment, not really sure if she wanted to perform the deed.  Her memories, glorious things they were, weren't even waiting for her to fall asleep now.  They were just showing up when she didn't want them.  Not like they'd really asked her opinion about replaying in her head the first time.  Thought didn't take too long to perform, so once again she opened her eyes to look around the half-lit room.

Without saying a word, Kai shifted, sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of the bed, now sitting on its edge, facing Tynian.  She had to grin at herself mentally, because even in this kind of situation she could still find a small amount of humor in the fact that she was, for once, taller than Ty, even if it was just in sitting on a higher perch.  The height illusion was shattered the moment he stood.

Unwittingly, she followed his example, standing up, feet coming into sharp contact with the less-than-warm floor.  Kai shrugged off the sensation of 'cold' and walked the few paces around Ty, casting a nonchalant glance around the room, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

A pair of hands came to rest on her shoulders, proving her mock-act to be something seen through without any effort whatsoever.  The dark-haired girl made no other movement other than to cross her arms to conserve her body's heat, still a bit cold.

Silence stretched inevitably between the two of them, something that wasn't really planned but had instead turned out to be inevitable.  Ironic in its own way, but not thought of as such by Kai, considering she was no longer really thinking about anything.

_It must've been all of 0400.  Garik had been a 'great' sibling and all but set her up to be...well.  He'd been the one to point out the passage and suggest to her that she go and see if there was anything down there worth suspicion.  She'd tracked his Force presence and found him entering a kriffing cantina.  Of all things, really, her twin would've made a wonderful drunk.  If she had just **not** listened to him...  If she'd just gone down the other passage...  Well, maybe it wouldn't even have mattered._

_Kai didn't know anymore.  All she knew was that she wanted to leave this wretched planet and go and lose herself in hyperspace.  Maybe set a course into a black hole.  In the past six or so hours, her life had suddenly lost quite a bit of purpose with a very rude awakening being the source of that sharp connection to the 'real galaxy'.  While life might not be entirely fair, sometimes it really seemed like life just enjoyed making examples of a few thousand beings, leaving the rest to hear their stories and thank the stars that the events never happened to them.  And, just her luck, her name was chosen from the cards to be one of the lives put through the trash compactor and shredded._

_If she took a step back, though, it seemed like it was a bit too perfectly staged, in some ways.  Whoever that guy was...Kai shuddered slightly in the night air.  Whoever that guy was, he knew a lot more than your average testosterone-led male nerf would about the person he was getting his high off of.  Kai frowned slightly, watching her feet as she walked across the black ground.  Whoever he was, he had a source.  It was almost as if...no.  That would be absurd, insane even.  Wouldn't it be?  Could he really have had specific information about **her**?_

It might've been seconds long, it might've been minutes.  But however long it was, Tynian didn't seem to notice her lapse into memory.  This was really getting out of hand.  Ever since her return from the dreaded mission, Kai had had dreams about her experience on the aforementioned venture.  If the memories decided they wanted to continue to play out, by the end of the week she would have seen the entire mission in completion twice.  It couldn't go on.  Not like this.  The only time she hadn't had a dream about Kessel was...  Well, back when she'd spent the night with Ty.

Kai glanced silently at the chrono displayed on the wall.  2030.  A silent sigh worked its way out of her, meeting the air with minimal disruption to it.  Finally Kai decided that something must be said.  If they stood like this for the rest of the night, she would probably fall over sleeping soon.

After a brief pause, she asked, "My dad was here, wasn't he?"

There was silence for a moment, before, "Yeah.  He came by about half an hour ago."  Tynian didn't offer much else, but his tone didn't imply that he wanted to give out no more information.  Kai took a few steps forwards the couch and sunk down on one end, her knees drawn up to her chest, turning her head slightly to look at him.

"What did he have to say?"

Ty had followed her to the couch and now sat looking between his hands and her, rather unsuccessfully doing it in an unnoticeable way.  "Actually, it was to discuss how I was dealing with this whole aftermath of your mission business."  He paused, and then said, "And he wanted to know what I wanted to do about Grandar."

Kai looked over at him, slightly surprised by the topics her father seemed to have brought up.  "Why would he want to know about that?"

She received a shrug in reply.  "Not quite sure.  It was weird, actually.  He seemed really ticked off over something when he came, but he sort of seemed to find a peace with himself after one of the things I said."  Kai watched Ty's expression silently, wondering slightly what had had her father so annoyed about.  And wondering still more what her _boyfriend_ could've said that would clear up said annoyance.  Still, she didn't press the subject, merely waited for him to go on, if he wanted.

There was silence for another minute, in which time Kai thought the subject had been dropped.  But then Ty suddenly voiced a question.  "Did your mother ever go out with Reggie Grandar or something?"


End file.
